Thought

Creating a new agency culture

Gemma Ballinger & Johanna Drewe

What’s it really like running a design studio? Output partners Gemma and Johanna reveal the highs and lows of leading a company during a chaotic economic climate.

Covid, lockdowns and burnout. When Output’s Managing Director Gemma Ballinger and Creative Director Johanna Drewe took over the agency, external events impacted the transition being planned.

Three years on, they sit down to reveal the learnings from their time in charge. From that turbulent start, what’s changed, where is the studio heading and how does it feel to be female leaders in a male-dominated industry?

What’s it like taking over an agency?

GB: Johanna and I took over Output from the founders in September 2020. They wanted to explore different things, and invited us to become shareholders and essentially run the agency. It was the middle of Covid and things were a bit wild. But we were excited and had to give it a go.

JD: My initial thought was, “Why not? What have I got to lose?” In retrospect this was probably a bit naive! Covid was a challenge for everyone and our business took a hit, like most others.

But we’re still standing and going from strength-to-strength. As we pass our third summer running the business, we’ve learned a lot. Each week, we face new and interesting challenges. The constantly changing political situation has given us new problems to solve. But I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and the effort we put into creating a culture people want to be part of.

We’re in a rare position. There are so few women in creative leadership roles. To shift our culture and work to be more inclusive and reflect the world around us is an immense privilege and responsibility.”

Johanna

GB: As an independent, female-led studio we stand out from the majority run by middle-aged guys. We like the work they do, but want to do things differently. For us, empathy, no ego and complete collaboration are key. Flexibility in work is a priority. And doing amazing projects for innovative companies who want to do good in the world.

JD: We’re in a rare position. There are so few women in creative leadership roles. To shift our culture and work to be more inclusive and reflect the world around us is an immense privilege and responsibility. We’re constantly looking at how we can forge an environment where people can be themselves, do their best work and have a life away from it.

What have you been up to?

GB: Initially, the focus was all on the work. Over time, with learnings from some challenging clients, new hires and a massive economic shit-show (thanks Liz!), we’ve realised we need to always be flexible and work hard to engage the team and clients, while always striving to do better work.

JD: My mission has been to raise the benchmark of our creative work. To do that, we had to focus on the things we’re best at. Output had done a wide range of work with a youth focus, and it felt like we needed to return to the core of what we were best at — brand — and activate that work across digital experiences. We enjoyed those blended projects the most, and had the foundations of a team setup to bring this vision to life.

Since then we’ve grown the brand and digital teams and paired them as ‘sparring partners’, to translate strong conceptual ideas into actionable brands and rigorous digital systems.

Who do you work with?

GB: Our clients are a mix of growing companies who are investment backed, through to charities and more established brands across entertainment and financial services. The variety of sector, size and life stage keeps everything interesting.

Recently we’ve won clients in the sustainability space, something we’re really excited about. It’s the client and their ambitions we’re interested in, not the sector. If we think it’s going to be a solid creative challenge, could do some good in the world and the client will be involved in the process, we want to work with them.

What’s changing in the business?

GB: We have a clear idea of where we want to go and what we’re brilliant at. There’s a bold vision for where we want to be in the future, the type of clients and the impact the work should have. We want to build brands for people creating products that improve people’s lives.

As a small team, we’re defined by the people we bring together. So there will always be input when new minds come in with ideas that inspire us to think differently. Having this broader vision is refreshing.

We love seeing people in the studio working together, but if you need to pick up your child or start later that’s fine. Some agencies thrive on the buzz of five days in the studio, but for us, it’s about getting the right balance.”

Gemma

JD: We needed to build a team to support the vision. When we first took over we approached jobs in the same way we’d always done. Our strategy was practical. It gave the design team a foundational understanding to work from, rather than helping to redefine the business itself. And our designers worked in separate timelines, rather than a united team spanning specialisms.

That’s different now. Strategists, brand and digital designers, supported by copywriters and motion designers, work together as one team to define the concept, brand language and digital experience in one multidisciplinary project. The outcome is much more cohesive, from the biggest moments to the smallest details.

GB: We also wanted to do more for the local community, and share our knowledge with people getting into the industry. We’ve partnered with a school in Bethnal Green to run Digital Days and support the students beyond that. Working with LIFT (a local government-funded initiative) we had an amazing intern last year who has recently become a permanent team member as a Junior Strategist.

We’ve done talks for Figma and the Future London Academy, welcoming people from around the world to our studio. We’ve been on podcasts and have more lined up, about our journey and how we work as a studio — to give people an insight into how we’re doing things.

How do you work?

GB: We’ve gone from all working remotely, to hybrid with a space in Bethnal Green, then back to Farringdon with more of a buzz around the studio. The team love the social side of things, so we want to encourage that and get people together as much as possible.

It’s all about flexibility. Starting and ending the week without a commute helps. We love seeing people in the studio working together, but if you need to pick up your child or start later that’s fine. Some agencies thrive on the buzz of five days in the studio, but for us, it’s about getting the right balance.

We offer some great benefits such as a nine-day fortnight, with every other Friday off, plus private healthcare and a flexible way of working. We perhaps take it for granted now, but this isn’t the norm and the team say it makes Output a brilliant place to work.

What’s it like working with Output?

JD: For the team, we’ve tried to create an environment where they’re empowered, they can really learn, feel safe and grow. We never want people to hide who they are. We want to embrace them for who they are, the differences we all have and create work that’s a reflection of that.

We never want people to hide who they are. We want to embrace them for who they are, the differences we all have and create work that’s a reflection of that.”

Johanna

GB: For clients, working with us should be exciting. That comes from immersing ourselves in what they want to achieve, listening with empathy and constantly pushing our approach.

When they meet us it should be fun, a highlight in the week. The presentation of work should feel like we ‘get’ them, but delightful and a bit unexpected. The best feedback we hear is ‘it just clicked’ when they met us. Some really appreciate us being female-led. We’re more likely to offer new insights and an antidote to a tried and tested approach. We enjoy our work, love bonding with client teams and try to bring some joy to their day.

What’s to come?

JD: We have a role to play as women running an agency in a male-dominated world. But we’re still a long way from where we want to be in terms of diversity. We’re working on how we can help people into the industry and build their skills through mentoring, writing useful content and opening up opportunities as widely as possible so everyone has the chances we’ve been lucky to have.

GB: We’re also starting an ‘Output Ventures’ programme to help startups get off the ground or take them to the next stage. It’s for new companies creating products and services which will do good for the world, and we want to support them to get there. We know the power of design, and that budgets are limited in early stages, and want to support people where we can to help them have more impact.

Photography

Nathan Perkins | @SenorPerkins

Gemma Ballinger & Johanna Drewe

From a junior role to running the place, Gemma (she/her) joined Output as a Business Development Executive and worked her way up to Managing Director and Partner. The journey has given her a wealth of stories to share. As Creative Director and Partner at Output, Johanna (she/her) ensures brand and digital disciplines are developed with equal imagination and rigour. A design leader in a male-dominated industry, she uses her experience and learnings to empower a new generation of female designers.

Where next?

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